Sterling, Ill. -- The Wheaton men's tennis team began its stay at the 2025 CCIW Men's Tennis Championship this morning with a quarterfinal match that was moved from Rock Island to an indoor facility in Sterling due to the weather conditions in western Illinois. The Thunder are the #4 seed in this year's tournament, and they faced off against fifth-seeded Carroll University today for a place in the semifinal round. Wheaton completed a season sweep over the Pioneers with a 4-2 result, and just as it happened last year, the team will face top-seeded North Central College in the semifinals after a Thursday quarterfinal win over Carroll. Today's victory was Wheaton's tenth of the season, maintaining a four-year streak of the Thunder achieving double-figures in the win column and reaching at least the semifinal stage of the conference tournament. 

Wheaton and Carroll's regular season meeting on March 22nd was a hard-fought 4-3 affair, with the Thunder earning a narrow victory. But today's contest was one-sided after the doubles fixtures, as Wheaton dominated singles play to extend its win streak over the Wisconsin side to 11-consecutive matches. The Pioneers were victorious at #1 and #3 doubles this morning to claim the first point of the match, but the Thunder won four of the five individual fixtures to seal the win and advance to the next round.

Andrew Jang logged the first point of the singles category on Thursday with a smooth 6-1, 6-4 victory in the fourth position, and he was joined on straight-set wins by Corin Tang and Evan Walther at #5 and #3 singles, respectively. Walther earned a 6-3, 6-2 result to put Wheaton on the brink, and Tang defeated his Pios counterpart, 6-3, 6-1 to seal the Thunder's spot in Friday's semifinal round. Carroll's #2 singles player shook off a first-set loss to earn a point for his side, but All-CCIW honoree Tim Steiner made sure that this did not ultimately cost the Thunder by emerging victorious at #1 singles. The senior rolled to a 6-1 score in the first frame of his contest before digging deep in the match-deciding third set to win 6-2 over his First Team All-Conference rival.

Wheaton faces a familiar opponent in tomorrow's match. The Thunder and the North Central Cardinals will meet again just six days after their regular season matchup, with the top-seeded Naperville side having bested Wheaton in the semifinals of the last two conference tournaments. The Thunder will hope to go one step further this time and pull the upset when they take on NCC at 9 AM on Friday morning in Rock Island.